Sat 1XI Season 2010

Thanks to everyone who contributed in making the 2010 season a successful one on and off the field at Merstham. In terms of results the 1XI had our most successful season in the Fullers League in terms of results points and position as we finished 4th with 237 points, winning 10 out of the 16 games played. There were many notable contributions to our success with league centuries scored for the first time in 3 years from Peter Freeman and myself and Ali Pervaiz, Joe Shinners, Simon Rivers and Manish Patel all putting match winning innings together in the season. Richard Feist lived up to his potential as a finisher when chasing and all the lower order such as Vincent, Parrett, Newton, Mohar and Boughey performed when required. Wasil Mohar became our main strike bowler in his first full season in the 1XI and was supported in the seam department by many throughout the season with Shinners' bowling becoming increasingly dependable as well as Newton, Feist, Hatton, Patel and Preston backing them up. Rivers and Vincent provided the main spin options to give us an well balanced all round attack but many more bowlers all contributed when were called upon. In total 33 players were used in the Saturday 1XI league side but never was a player merely making up the numbers as everyone knew they had the ability and support of the team to perform. Thanks goes to Chris Lowe, Justin David and Rob Young for the selection process through all the league sides being a smooth process enabling us to on the whole get the 3 best sides available out on a Saturday afternoon. I hope everyone enjoyed their cricket this season as I know I enjoyed playing with all of you. I think we played the games with the correct balance of league competitiveness as well as maintaining the spirit of cricket throughout

Following on from the league season we had a very successful September winning all 4 games played in good spirits against friendly opposition. Notable performances came from Ameer Pasha narrowly missing out on his first century with 94 against Littlehampton, Clapham & Patching and our varied bowling attack with Farooq Naseer and David Loader picking up the most wickets.

I hope to see many of you at the Dinner & Dance on Friday. If not, Winter well and I look forward to an even more successful season in 2011!